ADDRESS 

j OF 

D. F. HOUSTON 

Secretary of Agriculture 



BEFORE THE 



Governors' Conference, Annapolis, Md. 
December 16, 1918 




UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

CIRCULAR L33 

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY 



WaabiDgton, D. C. 



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ADDRESS OF D. F. HOUSTON, 

Secretary of Agriculture,' 

BEFORK THE (iOV EKNORS' CONFERENCE AT ANNAPOLIS, MD., DECEMBER 16. 1918. 



(toveknor Edge. Your ExcELLENt jes. Ladiks am) (ikntlemen : 

I more than gladly subscribe to everything Secretary Baker has 
said in expressing appreciation of the cooperation of the Governors 
of tlie various States. I have contracted the habit of cooperating 
with (Tovernors and the agencies under their direction. I suspect 
that the Department of Agriculture, both under terms of law and 
informally, cooperates with State officers in more enterprises than 
Miiy other two departments of the Federal Government; and it has 
interested me no little that within the last five years a definite policy 
of cooperation between the States and the Federal Government has 
grown up. a policy which carries large promise and seems to suggest 
the way out of some of the difficulties of double jurisdiction. 

FEDERAL AND STATE COOPERATION. 

Shortly after 1 came to Washington the Smitli-Lever Agricultural 
Education or Farm Demonstration Act was passed, under the terms 
of which the great State colleges of agriculture and the Department 
of Agricultuiv cooperate in aiding the farmer and in improving rural 
life. Under the teiTns of this measure these agencies are required to 
make plans in advance and to execute them jointly. AVe. therefore, 
have the picture of these two great agencies constantly collaborating, 
working according to definite plans and no longer looking at one 
another across an imaginary line wilh hostility and jealousy. This 
act was followed by the Federal-aid road act. under the terms of 
which the Department of Agriculture <oo])erates with the highway 
(■(mimissioner in each State. Later, the vocational education bill, 
administered by a board, of which I happen to be chairman, became 
a law. It. too, re(|uires cooperation with State authorities. So it is, 
that, in a variety of directions. I find myself in a very real sense a 
part of the State governments, cooperating intimately with your 
organized and hel]iful State establishments. 



4 CIRC. 133, OFFICE OF THE SECRETAEY, U. S. DEPT. OF AGR. 

About four and a half years ago, when the challenge came to 
France from German}^ to know what she would do in certain con- 
tingencies, and then to England, and I knew that a great war, which 
I had hoped might not come upon the world, was a reality, figura- 
tively speaking, I stopped in my tracks for a month or more, so^ 
overwhelmed was I by the disaster which had come upon the world 
and which seemed to threaten civilization. Now that the fighting has 
ended, I find difficulty in readjusting my thoughts, as I am sure you 
do. Although I have not been the Secretary of War or the Secretary 
of the Navy, controlling belligerent forces, I, like you and all the 
other good citizens of this Nation, have been deeply interested in the 
fighting and immersed in war tasks. The war became so much a 
part of me that I find difficulty in turning my thoughts away from it. 

GERMAN BLUNDERS. 

But the fighting has really ended, and it has ended as I knew it 
would from the day this Nation was forced to enter it. Germany 
made many f>yschological blunders ; but her greatest blunder was in 
thinking that anything the assassins of the sea, the submarines, 
could do to help her would be at all comparable to what this Nation 
could do to hurt her. She seemed to have the idea many people 
had, that this Nation, going about its business in an orderly fashion^ 
was not a dangerous Nation; that it was committed irrevocably to a 
policy of peace; that its mind was unalterably pacific. She ought to 
have learned a lesson from the past. The German rulers ought to have 
remembered that only two generations ago, when we were still a 
primitive people, doing things on a very small scale, still questioning 
whether we would be one nation or two, the two sections divided 
against each other, we raised two armies then either of which could 
have overcome any other army in the world. They ought to have 
known that, while we were not organized for war, while we were 
weak at the top, we were stronger than any other nation. 

It almost overwhelms one to contemplate the outcome and its 
results. You will agree with me that apparently one of the most 
firmly fixed things in the world a few years ago was the Romanoff 
dynasty in Russia. It has disappeared. Even more firmly fixed, 
perhaps, were the Hohenzollerns in Germany; and they have gone. 
The Hapsburgs of Austria and a-11 the little princes and potentates 
have gone. The injuries to France are about to be redressed; the 
wrongs done to the Poles are to be righted ; the rule of the Turks in 
Europe is ended; Palestine, after centuries, has been recovered to 
Christianity; and the lesson has been taught to arbitrary rulers or 
national bandits everywhere that international law is a reality, that 



ADDRESS OF D. F. HOUSTON AT GOVERNORS CONFERENCE. 5 

treaties are not mere scraps of paper, and that the little nation, as 
well as the big, will have its rights respected. 

Our rights have been vindicated and our freedom has been safe- 
guarded. Great things have been accomplished. But unless we go 
further and make certain that a similar disaster shall not again 
overtake the world, and that the combined forces of civilized nations 
shall be ready at any moment to teach national bandits their place, 
the sacrifices of our boys in France, especially of those who have 
given their lives,. and of all our people at home will, in a measure, 
have been in vaiu. Without effective concert of action on the part 
of the free and enlightened nations, four things of vast importance, 
so far as I can see, can not be secured. This concert of action seems 
to me to be a prerequisite for freedom of the seas, for disarmament, 
for the relief of the world from the burdens of militarism, and more 
than that, from the burden of the militarist, and for the dealing by 
nations in equitable fashion with backward territories and peoples. 
To secure the requisite conclusion in this matter is the first and most 
important task confronting our peace commissioners in Paris. Shall 
we not hold up their hands and give them such assistance as may be 
within our power ? 

CLEAR THINKING NEEDED. 

In the meantime we here at home have our tasks. In this, as in 
other times of great change, there is no little disturbance, confusion, 
unrest, and misapprehension. People are constantly violating a 
maxim which each man might to great advantage keep in mind. 
It is one of Mark Twain's best bits of philosophy. It runs : " Never 
get more out of an experience than there is in it." He illustrates it 
by saying that a cat which has sat on a hot stove lid will never sit 
on a hot stove lid again, but that the trouble with the cat is that 
thereafter it will not even sit on a cold stove lid. I had occasion 
recently to try this maxim on a vei-y attractive Englishman. When 
I repeated the maxim he looked puzzled. When I added the first 
part of the illustration. "A cat which has sat on a hot stove lid will 
never sit on a hot stove lid again," he quickly remarked : " Oh, 
rather." That seemed to be all he could get out of it. 

There is much confused thinking on uiatters with wliicli the De- 
partment of Agriculture deals. Many alarmist reports as to the 
present food situation and as to the world's future food supplies are 
appearing. Some of the confusion would bo reuioved if people 
would distinguish between present needs and supplies and the i)rob- 
able needs and supplies after the next harvests. We are now con- 
cerned with available food supplies and present needs. The world 



6 CIRC. 133, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, U. S. DEPT. OF AGR. 

for the next 8 or 10 months must live largely on what has been pro- 
duced. The question is as to the adequacy of the supplies to meet 
the current needs of the world. 

FARMERS EXCEEDED PREVIOUS RECORDS. 

This country at present is well circumstanced in respect to its 
supplies. No section of the American people did a better job than 
the farmers and the agencies assisting them during the course of the 
war. When we entered the war in 1917, our food situation was not 
satisfactory. We were at the beginning of the planting season. 
Many farmers had begun to plant. They realized that many men 
would be taken from the fields and naturally became apprehensive. 
Each morning for a time when I reached my office I would find stacks 
of telegrams from producers telling me it would be impossible for 
them to carry on their operations to feed this Nation and to help feed 
the allies. As a matter of fact, however, the farmers the first year 
of the war planted 22,000,000 more acres than in the year preceding 
our entry into it, and 35,000,000 acres more than during the five- 
year prewar average. They bettered this record in 1918, in spite 
of the difficulties and confusions, and secured yields which were 
beyond the average the Nation had ever before secured. I do not 
intend to weary you with figures, but I know of no other way of 
indicating what was accomplished than by reviewing the statistics 
for some of the leading products. 

It is estimated that the farmers produced in 1918 5,638,000,000 
bushels of the principal cereals, as against 4,792,000,000 in 1916, and 
an average of 4,883,000,000 for the five-year prewar period. Of to- 
bacco, they produced 1,267,000,000 pounds, as against 991,000,000 
pounds for the five-year average. They produced 917,000,000 bushels 
of wheat as against 728,000,000 for the five-year average, 650,000,000 
in 1917, and 636,000,000 in 1916. They harvested record crops of 
oats, 1,535,000,000 bushels in 1918, and 1,587,000,000 in 1917, with a 
peace average of 1,157,000,000. They increased the number of horses 
over that of 1914, 600,000 ; of mules, 375,000 ; of milch cows, 2,500,000 ; 
of other cattle, 7,600,000; and of hogs, nearly 12,500,000. They pro- 
duced 8,500,000,000 pounds of beef in 1918, as against 6,000,000,000 
in 1914; 10,500,000,000 of pork, as against 8,750,000,000; of milk, 
8,500,000,000 gallons, as against 7,500,000,000; of eggs, 1,921,000,000, 
as against 1,750,000,000; and of poultry, 589,000,000, as against 
544,000,000. The value of farm products, on the basis of existing 
prices, is estimated at about $24,500,000,000, as compared with 
$12,650,000,000 for 1914, and $11,700,000,000 for the five-year av- 
erage. This increased financial showing does not mean that the 
Nation is that much better off. We should have to look for the real 



ADDRESS OF D. F. HOUSTON AT GOVERNORS CONFERENCE. l 

gain in terms of bushels and pounds ; but it does mean that the re- 
turns of the farmer kept pace with increasing prices in the com- 
munity at large. 

THE GOVERNMENT AND GUARANTEED WHEAT PRICES. 

In respect to wheat, we are experiencing some embarrassment. 
The question is how the Government will effectuate its guarantee. 
As you know, the Government, in order to stimulate the production 
of wheat, fixed a minimum guaranteed price. That guaranteed price 
is $2.26, No. 1, Chicago. Now, the farmers planted more wheat in 
1917 than in any preceding year, with.one exception. They planted 
over 5,000,000 acres more in 1918 than in 1917; and this fall they 
have sown 49.000,000 acres, which is 7,000,000 more than the record 
acreage for the fall of 1917. The condition of this fall wheat in 
December was 98..5 per cent, as against 79 per cent and 85 per cent in 
1917 and 191G, respectively. On the basis of these figures, the esti- 
mated winter wheat crop is 760.000,000 bushels, which, with an 
average spring wheat crop, would give us at least 1,000,000,000 bushels 
in 1919. Remember that this wheat will not come into the market 
until next summer and fall. We shall need for domestic use about 
650,000,000 bushels. Will the world take our surplus wheat at the 
price guaranteed by the Government? 

Now, I am not wise enough to say just what the world will need 
from us in the way of food a year from now. England increased her 
production during the- war. France increased her production this 
year over last. The Belgian farmers have been working. Nearly all 
Belgium was behind the German lines, (xermany left nothing un- 
done and is apparently in better circumstances with respect to food 
than some of us imagined. Southeastern Aastria has considerable 
food. There are supplies in southern Russia. The pj-obleui there is 
partly one of mobilizing local supplies and of transporting and dis- 
tributing them. It does not require a prophet to say that the Euro- 
pean nations will exert themselves to the very utmost this year to 
produce things in respect to which they can get a promj)! response. 
England will not let down. France will extend her operations. The 
States of Austria and Italy will, as far as they can. extend theirs, as 
will also Belgium and others. Shipping is opening up. Several 
hundred thousand tons of shipping will Ihj released within the next 
few months. Australia has reserves of food supplies and her crop 
is promising, as are the crops of Argentina and Algeria. 

I can not flatly assert that we shall lose anything in making good 
our guarantee. We may lose millions of dollars. But I do say that 
in order to effectuate the guarantee. Congress should make available 
to the proper agency a fund of not less than $()00,000.0()(). bef^ause 



8 CIRC. 133, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, U. S. DEPT. OF AGR. 

the market price at which the world will take wheat may be from 
25 cents to a dollar less than that guaranteed, and the Government 
may have to purchase and sell the entire crop. I am assuming that 
it will not be deemed good public policy to try to keep the price 
above the market price, and that the Government will not attempt 
to do so. We can not return to a normal condition if the Government 
attempts artificially to keep up prices. To do so would involve great 
hardships, also, and necessitate a continuance of restrictions on an 
impatient people. Of course, I need not repeat that the Government 
will have to make good the guarantee. 

LAND AND THE RETURNING SOLDIER. 

Secretary Baker has spoken of the return of the Army. What we 
can do for the boys who return is in all our minds. I do not know 
just what they will want us to do for them. A great many of them 
will not want us to do anything in the way of assisting them to find 
a task or a job. A Canadian representative was in Washington not 
very long ago, and knowing that Canada had been in the war for 4 
years and that many of her men had come back who could work and 
were not going in the army again, I asked him what his experience 
had been in finding places for such men. He said that 90 per cent 
of them did not want to be bothered at all, and that they had the 
task of looking after only about 10 per cent. We may have a larger 
percentage to care for. There may be many men who have been 
working in munition factories, who have not. been abroad, whom the 
communities and States should assist. That we shall be able satis- 
factorily to take care of them all, I think few of us doubt. The truth 
is we think too much about this country in terms of to-day. I won- 
der how many of you remember that between 1900 and 1915 we 
gained 24,000,000 people. We took care of them. Since the European 
war broke out, it is estimated that we gained a population of 
3.200.000, which is just about equal to the number we sent abroad and 
had in the camps. Now, we shall gain a million or more a year for 
the next 15 or 20 years; and we shall take care of them. We are 
still pioneering this country. We have about 370,000,000 acres of 
land actually in cultivation and 1,100,000,000 acres of tillable land. 
I know of several States in the Union in which you could almost 
lose a million people. States which would be glad to get that many. 

Let me hasten to say that our present emergency task is not an 
easy one. It is not always an easy thing for people who want land 
to acquire it. I am thoroughly sympathetic with any rational plan 
of land settlement that either the States or the Federal Government 
can devise; and I believe that land settlement has for too long a time 
been either without direction or in the hands of irresponsible pro- 



ADDRESS OF D. F. HOUSTON AT GOVERNORS CONFERENCE. 9 

moters and private agencies. And I need not say to the Governors 
assembled here that it would not be a kindness to induce men who 
have no experience to go into farming without giving them assistance 
in the early stages of their enterprise. Farming is one of the most 
difficult undertakings I Imow ; and nobody needs to know as much as 
the farmer, unless it be a Governor or a member of a legislative body. 
If the States could create an agency which would give to the people 
of the Nation seeking homes reliable information, the facts and 
nothing but the facts, as to available lands and the opportunities 
afforded, I believe they would render a great service not only to them- 
selves but also to all the Nation. 

For a long time we have been giving very systematic attention to 
agriculture and fostering agencies intended to assist the farmers. 
We began to do so a long time ago. The two most significant agencies 
in this country, or for that matter in the world, laboring to improve 
rural life, are the colleges of agriculture on the one hand and the 
Federal department on the other. The foundations of both were 
laid in the time of another great crisis, during the Civil War. The 
laws which were influential in developing them bore the signature of 
Abraham Lincoln, who, in the circumstances, might easily have said 
that the time was not opportune for such legislation and for the 
Nation to embark on such plans for spending money. But Lincoln 
was not an opportunist; he was a statesman, and he approved the 
bill. These agencies have slowly but steadily grown and expanded, 
and to-day, in point of personnel, financial support, and effectiveness, 
they excel those of any other three nations in the world combined. 

RECENT HELPFUL LEGISLATION. 

The last few years have been very fruitful of helpful legislation, 
State and Federal, in the field of agriculture. In 1914 the coopera- 
tive agricultural extension act was enacted. It is one of the greatest 
single pieces of educational legislation of which I have knowledge. 
It has resulted in the creation of a force, under the joint direction 
of the colleges of agriculture and the Federal department, without 
parallel elsewhere in the world as an educational extension agency. 
Since we entered the war, this force has been greatly increased. At 
the beginning of 1917 it embraced about 1,700 trained men and 
women. With the funds provided in the food-production act, sup- 
plemented by additional State and local contrilbutions, the number 
was increased to about 5,000; and all these trained men and women 
have been working day in and day out, aiding the farmer in every 
possible way. Another important measure is the Federal-aid road 
act, under which, as you know, the department is cooperating with 
your State highway commissions. Others are the farm loan, the 
grain standards, the cotton futures, and the Federal warehouse acts. 



10 OIRC. 133, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, U. S. DEPT. OF AGR. 

There is still other constructive legislation which I shall not take 
time to mention. There has been persistent constructive effort on 
the part of the department and the colleges under their regular 
authorizations and appropriations. During the last generation, espe- 
cially, many of the best minds of the Nation have been eagerly study- 
ing rural problems and working along very many helpful lines. 
I apprehend, therefore, that not many meritorious, novel proposals 
of great significance affecting agriculture are likely to be made. I 
believe that in this field we face not reconstruction, nor any revo- 
lutionary program, but rather the task of selection and emphasis and 
of further constructive undertakings. 

I have recently offered a number of suggestions which 1 believe 
will be highly helpful if they are adopted, if they receive the support 
both of the Federal Government and of the States. Some of these 
are of direct interest to you for many reasons. They concern you 
especially because they will necessitate action on the part of the State 
authorities and possibly further appropriations. 

EXTENSION AND ROAD ACTS. 

I have in mind first the continuance of our extension Avork ap- 
proximately on its present scale and the retention of the efficient 
members of the existing force. I have already pointed out that it 
was greatly increased during the war. I am sure that this agency 
has increasingly demonstrated its value. One concrete evidence of 
this is that the farmers themselves, through their local bureaus and 
other county authorities, are making local funds available to meet 
part of the salary of the agents. It seems to me it would be a serious 
mistake to disband the part of the force built up under emergency 
conditions. Most of the men and women added have demonstrated 
their value and have acquired familiarity with their tasks and valu- 
able experience. The agricultural extension act provides for suc- 
cessive annual increases of funds until ,1922-23. I believe that we 
should not only anticipate these annual increases, but make such other 
provisions as will obviate the necessity of partially disorganizing 
the machinery. 

I am convinced also that we should not only resume in full measure, 
as promptly as possible, under the terms of the Federal-aid road 
act, the construction of good roads which was interrupted by the war, 
but that we should make ampler provision for vigorousl}^ carrying 
this work forAvard. We now have available, out of balances accru- 
ing during the two years of the war and from the appropriations for 
the present fiscal year, togetlier with amounts pledged by the States, 
over and above what is required to meet the terms of the act, approx- 
imately $70,000,000. I believe it would be good policy to make 



ADDRESS OF D. F. HOUSTON AT GOVERNORS* CONFERENCE. 11 

further provision not only because of the great inniportance of good 
roads to all the people of the Nation, but also because there will 
probably be unemployment in some directions during the coming 
year or years, and because I know of no other sort of public work 
which the Nation can undertake with a clearer certainty of adetjuate 
benefit. 

IMPROVING RURAL HEALTH. 

There is another matter of vast importance I have had on my mind 
for many years which I believe should receive tlie careful considera- 
tion of Federal and State authorities. I refer to the matter of im- 
proving rural health. I believe the time has come for eti'ective legis- 
lation and action on the part of the two authorities in this direction. 
The Secretary of War a short time ago referred to the physical 
disabilities under which a higli percentage of the boys entering the 
Army labored. I do not think we can afford to neglect anything 
which will remedy the condition which the figures reveal. 

. Is it not true that the advantages of modern medical science have 
accrued somewhat more fully to urban communities than to the 
rural? We know that to-day cities not only have the benefit of the 
services of the best medical practitioners of every sort, including 
specialists, but also of nurses, of modern hospitals, of clinics both 
for pay and free patients, and of sanitary surveys and medical 
inspection. Our rural communities are not so fortunate. They are 
afflicted with many preventable diseases, and they lack the requisite 
provision in the way of hospitals and nursing facilities. I know, of 
course, that it is difficult to provide these things where population is 
less dense, but the difficulties of such a task should simply incite us 
to efforts to overcome them. In some sections of the country many 
millions of people suffer from malarial diseases, from typhoid fever, 
from the hookworm, from tuberculosis, and from other maladies. I 
referred to this matter in my annual report to the President, and 
urged consideration of and action upon it at the earliest possible 
moment. I have been very much interested to note that a bill has 
just been introduced into Congress providing for cooperation between 
the Federal Government and the States in the matter of improving 
rural health along lines similar to those provided for in the agricul- 
tural extension bill. I take the liberty of suggesting the importance 
of this matter to this Governors' conference and of asking tliat it 
receive their earnest attention. 

AGRICULTURAL REGULATORY LAWS. 

There is another matter of which I speak with more diffidence and 
hesitation. I refer to the condition existing in the States in respect 
to the agencies dealing with regulatory laws bearing on agriculture. 



12 CIRC. 133, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, U. S. DEPT. OF AGR. 

It SO happens that I am called upon to administer many Federal 
laws in this field, laws which vitally affect the people of the States 
and the Nation. I administer the food and drugs act and many- 
quarantine laws. I am engaged in efforts, in cooperation with your 
State officers, to relieve the farmers from many unnecessary burdens 
imposed by animal disease. I find no little difficulty in securing 
effective joint action for three reasons: First, because in many of 
the States the jurisdictions of the different agencies dealing with 
agricultural matters are not well defined; second, because the powers 
are dispersed among a number of administrative bodies ; and, third, 
because in some of the States the agency having the power has not 
the requisite funds. 

It has occurred to me that there would be great gain and larger 
service to the people if each State would make sure that the jurisdic- 
tion of the agricultural college and the administrative agricultural 
establishments were clearly defined. I believe that the agricultural 
colleges should be permitted to do the research and educational work 
within and without the college, and that there should be built up 'a 
great, strong State department of agriculture embracing all the ad- 
ministrative agencies dealing with agriculture with powers purelj?^ 
of an administrative and regulatory nature. This is the next great 
step to take to complete the official organization of agriculture. I 
am convinced that it would lead to more sympathetic understanding 
on the part of the various State agencies and harmonious coopera- 
tion, and that it would very greatly simplify the tasks of the Federal 
department where State powers are involved. This very important 
matter has received the careful attention of the Association of State 
Commissioners of Agriculture and of the Association of Agricul- 
tural Colleges. I understand that they have come to a satisfactory 
conclusion in the matter and have arrived at a common mind. 

FARMING MUST BE PROFITABLE AND RURAL LIFE ATTRACTIVE. 

There continues to be much discussion of a back-to-the-farm move- 
ment. Every intelligent man will give sympathetic encouragement 
to any intelligent and well-directed movement to facilitate settlement 
in rural districts of people who desire to enter farming and who have 
the requisite experience and training to make their venture success- 
ful. The larger thing, however, is to keep in the rural districts and 
on the farms those who are already there. This can be done and can 
only be done by omitting nothing to make farming profitable and 
rural life agreeable and attractive. Farming, of course, must pay. 
Farmers must consider their bank balance just as other business men 
do. I had assumed that these were obvious facts. 

I see many articles which seem to carry the implication that there 
should be no limit to the farming population at any particular time. 



ADDRESS OF D. F. HOUSTON AT GOVERNORS' CONFERENCE. 13 

Of course, there is room in this country for more farmers. There 
will be more and more need for an increased number of farm owners 
as population expands. But we must clearly recognize that, in the 
long run, there will be onl}^ just as many people in the rural districts 
as. are necessary to produce the supplies the Nation and the world 
will take at a remunerative price. Clearly, those who have a respon- 
sibility in reference to food production must bear this principle in 
mind, and must be guided by it in making any suggestions bearing 
upon the increase in production. We must omit nothing to facilitate 
the increase in the number of farm owners and to hasten the process 
from tenancy to ownership. We must continue our efforts to relieve 
the farmers of the burden of waste from preventable diseases, both of 
human beings and of animals. We shall continue to do everything 
possible to promote soil improvement, better processes of cultivation, 
and especially to improve the marketing and distribution of farm 
products. 

There are difficult problems in every field of agriculture, but more 
unsolved problems in the field of marketing than in any other. The 
Federal Government has created an effective Bureau of Markets 
which is doing much to aid the producers, but the problem is a vast 
and complex one. There will be needed for its solution the thinking 
of the best minds throughout the Nation ; and it seems to me that the 
States can afford to do their part by the creation of State bureaus of 
markets which may cooperate effectively with that of the Federal 
Government. 

SETTING OUR NATIONAL HOUSE IN ORDER. 

We are noW' engaged in the great task of building a clean, strong, 
national household from cellar to attic. This is one worthy national 
aspiration about wdiich there can be no difference of opinion. We 
owe it to all our people to realize it. We owe it especially to the 
boys who have offered their lives to preserve our freedom, to enable 
us to pursue our activities in peace. We know with what spirit and 
unity the people of the Nation served during the war. It was my 
privilege to go about the country and to mingle with them. I found 
everywhere a grim determination to vindicate our rights; but I 
found more than this. I saw manifested everywhere a spirit which 
reminded me more than anything else of the spirit of crusaders. 
There was no difference in any part of the country. I found it in 
the East in the moi-e prosperous regions, and I found it in the West 
in distressed and stricken sections. 

I remember being in Montana in September in the very heart of a 
region that was sadly distressed. I was in a town on the very rim of 
the plateau overlooking the Glacier National Park. It was a little 
town, a new town, but the people were proud of it. I have never 



14 CIRC. 133, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, U. S. DEPT. OF AGR. 

found anywhere a finer spirit among American citizens than I found 
there. I was sitting one evening in the hotel waiting for the train. 
A man came in and sat down to talk to me. I thought perhaps he 
had something to ask or some complaint to make. He did not seem 
to be very prosperous. I soon found, however, that there was only 
one thought uppermost in his mind and that was the winning of the 
war. I discovered that I could tell him little about the causes of 
the war, its meaning, or its progress. As I was leaving he said : " I 
have three boys in France, and I want them to stay there until this 
job is finished once for all. I can scarcely expect to get them all 
back. Of course, I should like to get them all back. I hope, in any 
event, that I may get two or one of them ; but Avhatever happens, it 
will be their contribution to the cause of civilization and to the 
future welfare of this Xation." 

Some time before this I traveled about the country with an humble 
French officer. After he left me he went into the far XortliAvestern 
States to speak. AVhen he came back he said that he must tell me 
of an incident that occurred. He was speaking in Boise. He said 
that a ranchman came up to him and told him he had traveled 
500 miles to see a French uniform. He added : " Before my country 
entered the Avar my son went to Canada and volunteered. He fought 
for nearly two years with the Canadians. A few months ago I got 
news of his death. Here is a card I have received showing the 
village where they tell me he is buried. This cross indicates his 
grave." The French soldier said to him : '"' My friend, you take this 
very bravely." " Well," said the ranchman, " this is no time for 
weakness, but when this war is over I shall go to France, find that 
grave if I can, and lie down on it, and have a good cry." The 
French soldier told me that two nights later he was speaking in 
Portland; Oreg., and that when he finished this same man came up 
to greet him. He asked him what he was doing there, and the man 
replied that he was going to stay with him as long as he was in 
that section. 

The French soldier himself was deeplj^ impressed with the spirit 
and ideals of our people, and he told me one of the most beautiful 
stories I have heard to illustrate the perception of this spirit by the 
French people. He said that one day he heard two of his soldiers 
from the country districts of France talking. He heard one of them 
say : '' They tell me the Maid of Orleans heard voices. Do you sup- 
pose it is true? " The other shrugged his shoulders, turned to the 
lieutenant, and asked what he thought about it. He said : " ^Yho 
knows? She must have heard some sort of a voice. She had an 
inspiration to lead her country to freedom and deliverance." He 
said the soldier then asked: "Do you think the voice can still be 
heard?" And before he could answer the clear notes of an American 



ADDRESS OF D. F. HOUSTON AT GOVERNORS' CONFERENCE. 15 

bugle rang out over the valleys of Lorraine, and he said: "Listen; 
the voices can still be heard." 

May we not hope that the same spirit of patriotism and miity may 
animate our people in dealing with the vexatious problems of peace 
confronting us. Our Nation and its institutions were well worth 
fighting for. Now that we have safeguarded its freedom and as- 
sured ourselves of an opportunity to continue our national improve- 
ment, shall we not carry this same fine spirit into the gi^at work that 
lies ahead of us^ 

THE AMERICANIZATION OF SOME AMERICANS. 

Let us especially see to it that the people who have more recently 
come among us, having experience with governments and conditions 
greatly differing from ours, shall be brought to a knowledge of the 
spirit, meaning, and value of our democracy. Too many of them 
have little or no conception of what democracy means. They think 
too much in terms of their former homes and experiences. There they 
were fighting for the most elementary rights of men, and felt it nec- 
essary to resort at times to violence to secure something from arbi- 
trary rulers. 

Unfortunately, too, tliere are those of long remdence here with 
confused minds, ignorant or mischievous, who are busily engaged in 
making false representations and who may mislead the newcomers 
especially. There is no little evidence of at least a temporary emer- 
gence of a class spirit. Not a few are preaching the doctrine of 
S3''ndicalism and some of violence. I do not believe in class govern- 
ment. I believe in government by all the people and for all the people. 
Our representative institutions are not perfect and will be im- 
proved; but I believe that they furnish the best foundations of gov- 
ernment in the world and that, through them, our peo^ile can 
realize their worthy aims. Class government is the antithesis of 
democracy. Democracy arose as the result of a fight to put down 
one class. I do not believe that the people will ))ermit the dominance 
of any other class in this day and time. P>very good cause can get a 
liearing in America and those who advocate it have an opportunity 
to attempt to persuade the peojile to their way of thinking. If they 
can do so they can secure what they wish at the ballot; and there is. 
therefore, no place in this country for any misguided minority Avhich 
would seek to impose its law on the majority by resorting to violence. 

Not the least important problem confronting us is the American- 
ization of a considerable fraction of the American people ; and I believe 
that the Governors of the several States of the L^^nion have a peculiar 
opportunity in this direction to render a service of enormous value 
to their States and to the Nation. 



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